I agree with Xefa01 he said in one paragraph what i was trying to say in many. Cheers!

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The way I see it is then the foundations would be something down these lines

A: Hivemind basis (Something controls everything)

B: Primitive humanoid basis/ pack mentality (You have basic intelligence but it is still mainly instinct that rules)

C: Virus basis (The urge to spread and multiply the virus into as many as possible)

D: Intelligent basis (There is intelligence and this new species is trying to take over, or just want to leave the planet to go home etc.)

E: Insert here basis (There are properly more fundamental settings that could be used)

On top of that basis, then one can add plant, furry, scaly, chitinous, crystal etc. creatures... depending on how the mini´s are supposed to look to make them diverse compared to the other factions. At least I think that should be what decides how they look, not some story based thing since every single theme have been used before when it comes to "animal aliens" and it wont please everyone!

I believe that the animal faction armies should be based on a beehive-style hierarchy system - So you would have a physic/pheromone-style control emitting from a 'Queen Mother', and the Queen Mother would be the big bad centerpiece of your army. The Queen Mother would give commands to 'Minor-Queens' (Basically a Squad Commander) The Minor-Queens would then command 'Workers/Soldiers' to attack, defend, move, take an objective or hide. The Workers will basically be brain dead, and do whatever the Queen Mother tells them to do. I definitely think every Animal Faction army should have a big scary doom-bringing centerpiece, like the 'Nids have their Swarmlords, Hive Tyrants etc.

Just reminds me of the Gears of War Locusts

Still have a queen that controls them and they are still bugs.

We already have the hive mind in the Salvager faction, the military chain of command in the reclaimers, the nomadic chieftains in the bandits, and the militia in the corperation.

The only ones left to the animals to make them unique are the flat chain of command (ie. no ranks, etc.; everyone is equal) or, which I prefer, the pack mentality - a more subtle version of the bandit's chain of command.

The first would be explained by the virus, with the animals being forced to do its bidding, and the second would be explained by alien lifeforms "encouraging" as opposed to outright controlling, other creatures.

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To be continued...

Animals still have alpha's in packs.

Indeed they do, but they are not drones to the alphas, not by a long shot.

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To be continued...

i think alphas would be better. in 90% of games today, there is either a hive mind aspect, or a queen. an alpha can be either male or female (or, being aliens possibly both/nyther) and would also allow for different factions that could fall within the animals army.

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saltine runner thanks you for reading this post, and is sorry for his ramblings.
"In the grim darkness of the future, there is only static grass." -Smurfyk
2000pts Tyranid

Chief, I swear you try and smash down every idea I give. Even if they had a Queen Mother, it does not mean they are insects. Seeing as these are alien creatures, even maamals could have evolved a hive style form of living. Keep the Queen Mother idea for now, until something better comes up.

What about the king father? Where's his representation? I kid ofcourse.

The thing about the animals is that it would be cool if somehow they would work together of their own free will, or instinct (implanted or evolved w/e). As if every creature felt some unity, but not because of mind control or common motherlord. In fact wouldn't it be neat if the animals' alphas who lead the different packs came together and forged alliances or became bitter rivals?

That would be rather intelligent of them, wouldn't it? However, it is a full possibility that it could happen, it even happens on Earth. In Africa, a herd of giraffes will often band together with a herd of zebra, so the giraffes can spot danger high above, and notify the zebra to run. However, Alphas will still be necessary, or their would be chaos amongst the animal ranks. They would fight each other rather than the enemy, as they would be competing for the new alpha position.

Guys, I am going to run a 5 day poll on the main page, on whether the Animals should have a Queen Mother or not.

I think the comments about a hive structure being inappropriate for the animals is pretty fair. The salvagers already have a hive thing locked down and honestly it's a little predictable. I would like to see the animal faction be the non-faction, the way you can play the ever-present danger of life on post-apoc DP earth - They can have special animals which through contact with humanity and age become characterful enough to have stories written about them. See examples from fishermen about old and clever fish, from hunters about canny bobcats, ancient alligators, and stubborn mountain sheep who know just how to keep their distance and still get what they want. This means that the faction can have plenty of places where people can get into the background, can get attached to leader-figure types, or what have you. However, players can have a great excuse to collect a second or third faction because the animals have a reason to fight any skirmish group of any other faction out there. It's a dangerous place! Earth is a struggle to survive without the machinery of civilisation keeping the wild things at bay.

I think that the best idea is to have a non-faction because we get to avoid BS like "mind control" or co-operative parasites or anything that just feels too forced for the setting and at the same time we get to have something which is pretty unique in terms of skirmish wargames - a way to show how lethal the world itself can be. We don't need another faction that all works together. We need a faction that fill in other gaps.